H.R. McMaster, the new national security adviser, is a great improvement

THE 22 national security advisers who served Donald Trump’s predecessors included two army or marine generals. On February 20th Mr Trump equalled that tally in less than a month, by appointing Lieutenant-General H.R. McMaster to succeed the disgraced Mike Flynn.

Like the belligerent Mr Flynn, whom Mr Trump sacked after 24 days in the job, after it was revealed that he had lied about a private conversation with a Russian diplomat, General McMaster appears to conform to the president’s idea of a fire-breathing war-fighter. He is stocky, bullishly charismatic and as a tank commander in the first Iraq war was decorated for battlefield prowess. After bumping into an Iraqi armoured column, General McMaster’s troop of nine American tanks destroyed over 80 Iraqi tanks and other vehicles without suffering a loss.

Also like Mr Flynn, who was once an innovative intelligence officer, General McMaster is a freethinker. His doctoral thesis in military history was a ruthless takedown of the pliant Vietnam-era military leadership, later published as a book entitled “Dereliction of Duty”. Yet there the…Continue readingUnited States